Impacts

SCOOP will provide cropping models/systems for more diversified, stress-tolerant, multi-functional, robust and resilient organic crop productions in the open field. The innovative SCOOP intercropping systems will be based on camelina and locally adapted underutilized crops, such as pulses, pseudo-cereals, and ancient cereals.

Camelina is stress-proof crop highly suitable to different European pedo-climates. Agro-biodiversity can be also expected to increase as well as yield stability compared to respective sole crops. The selected companion crops will be chosen through the living lab approach among species and genotypes particularly adapted to local conditions.

The combination of these two crops will permit an optimized use of soil: i) increasing the Land Equivalent Ratio; ii) decreasing the environmental footprint of the systems by breaking of disease cycles and reducing weed pressure; iii) improving the domestic organic production of protein and oil thus facilitating the traceability and certification systems humoring a growing consumer interest. Camelina has also a strong and positive impact on pollinators, being a valuable source of pollen.

SCOOP will test new mixtures of crop varieties suitable for organic production, increased biodiversity and ecosystem health maintenance – addressing relevant research and networking. Living labs will represent the focal starting point of the SCOOP project. They will be established since the start in each participating country engaging local farmers, but also breeders, researchers, processors, consumers and various stakeholders in the organic sector.

Living Lab will permit to take agreed decisions in terms of crops/varieties to be included in the intercropping systems, considering the needs and opinions of all the participants. The SCOOP results in terms of biodiversity promotion and improved ecosystem health will be showcased by means of the LL and this will permit the future scale up in the development of other organic cropping system innovations Later on.

LL will be also involved in the organization of demonstration activities, and they will serve also to establish a strong connection between the SCOOP results and the general public to increase their visibility, and in general to improve the knowledge and the consciousness toward systems able to promote biodiversity and ecosystem health maintenance.

SCOOP will test functional biodiversity for pest and disease control strategies. Functional biodiversity derived from the adoption of the SCOOP intercropping systems will be surveyed at different levels (i.e. visual analysis of mycorrhiza presence, soil DNA extraction, weed presence, insect and disease presence, etc.).

Then compared with the reference mono-cropping systems in order to be able to understand and quantify how functional biodiversity will impact on pest and disease control both at above and below ground.

SCOOP will ensure closed nutrient cycles and improved efficiency in the use of resources and inputs. The innovative intercropping systems addressed in the SCOOP project can be expected to strongly reduce agronomic input needs. Pulses in fact are able to fix considerable amount of atmospheric N, while camelina is a catch crop thus able to rapidly uptake it from the soil avoiding N-leaching to the groundwater.

Moreover, legume-derived soil N will be available not only for camelina, but also for succeeding crops in rotation thus reducing fertilization needs in a longer term and in the whole farming system. In the case of pseudo-cereal or ancient cereals, intercropping with camelina will also allow an early soil coverage thus preventing N-leaching, and soil erosion, and a better infiltration of water at deeper layers since camelina is deeply tap-rooted.

Additionally, camelina will improve the standingability of the companion crop improving even maturation, reducing seed losses, and possibly also the quality of the harvested seeds. Intercrops are also associated to additional ecosystem services such as: increased diversity of soil microbes, flora and fauna, in particular SCOOP will evaluate the increase in mycorrhiza which are related to P recycling, further improving the sustainability of the system.

Camelina has also a strong and positive impact on pollinators, being a valuable source of pollen. Agro-biodiversity can be also expected to increase as well as yield stability compared with respective sole crops.